The paths we choose
by silent diamond
Summary: We're all trying to find our way on the road to peace no matter the methods. Some roads may be clear and sunny, as some may be filled with fog or thunderous weather. Some roads may take a little longer to reach our destination, and some simply may diverge on a different path and get lost along the way. Who truly knows if we're going the right way, it's simply the paths we choose.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This fanfic will be great if you have faith and stick to it. It will maintain some elements of the series but will go down its own path. Follow Favorite and leave a review, it'll motivate me to continue writing this. Also the uchiha massacre occurred three years later than original plot. And Assume every character is wearing their normal outfits if I don't describe it.

Disclaimer: I do not own naruto or naruto shippuden. I however own the few OC's placed in here.

Chapter 1

 _"I-I c-can't move!" a blond spiky haired blue eyed child yelled out in anguish. His body had felt ablaze, the pain permeated through his body was the only thing he could feel._

 _His body was covered with cuts and bruises. This seemed like the only thing he ever really get from the villagers. Pain and loathing._

 _The villagers standing over him all looked at him with crazed smirks and glares. They had been planning this out for a while now. They stayed patient and learned his schedule, today was the day they chose to make their plan come to fruition._

 _They had someone following him the entire day. Watching, making sure that he followed his routine of going to the academy, the ramen stand, and hanging out with his only friend._

 _They had finally caught him where they want him, in one of the leaf's village many alleyways alone on the way home for the day. One female villager suddenly stepped up out of the group, brandishing two kunai from her coat pocket._

 _"Your time has come Demon!" the lady spat in disgust getting ready to give the finishing blow. They had been beating him for 30 minutes now and it finally seemed like they broke the monster's spirits as it stopped begging them to stop. The remainder of the mob applauded as the chosen woman to finish the demon got ready to give the final blow._

 _She would finally be able to rid the world of the demon that killed her daughter and plagued Konoha!_

 _"Naruto!" there was a loud shout at the front of the alleyway that caught the attention of Naruto and the mob as a girl who looked to be around the boy's age ran right towards them._

 _Her voice was laced with the sound of fear mixed with confusion. She had pure black hair in twin pig tails with black eyes. She wore a black dress with black shorts under them with blue ninja sandals._

 _Naruto's eyes widened at the familiar voice! "Y-Yuki-chan stay away!" Naruto hated for her to see him like this, she was his only friend and no matter how much they hurt him, he wouldn't be able to bear if they hurt her._

 _Yuki ignored her friends warning without a doubt as she continued running until she skidded in between Naruto himself and the mob. She folded her small arms as she gave a seething glare at the mob. She didn't know why people hated her bestfriend or why, but one thing she knew was that it was wrong and she wouldn't let them do it when she was around!_

 _Her and Naruto had been friends since they joined the academy whne they were six, they were ten now. Today, they had recently finished playing after leaving Ichiraku and as she was heading home, she noticed he had dropped his frog wallet, so she was going to drop that off as she stumbled across him and the mob._

 _"What's going on!? Why are you attacking my friend?" the young girl asked as the mob immediately frowned looking at one another immediately muttering. "Does the demon has her under hypnosis?" "Maybe it's threatening her". Yuki gritted her teeth in anger listening to the stupid villagers._

 _"NO. NARUTO IS MY BESTFRIEND, HE DOESN'T BOTHER ANYONE WHY ARE YOU ALL SO MEAN?" Yuki yelled in frustration."This THING is NOT your friend little girl, I think you should go home and forget this entire night" one man from the mob stated with the others agreeing._

 _Yuki immediately shook her head in refusal. Ever since she had met the Uzumaki she noticed he had no friends and the villagers glared at him. She didn't know why everyone hated her best friend but she wouldn't allow them to hurt him any longer! "NO! Naruto-kun's my best friend, I wont allow you evil villagers to hurt him, he hasn't done anything to anyone!" Yuki shouted dropping into a sloppy version of the famous Uchiha fighting Stance._

 _Maybe if they couoldv'e recognized it, they would've knew she was a child of the noble uchiha clan and there next move would've been different, but seeing as they were just villagers and not ninja they wouldn't. Naruto looked up at Yuki with fear as he tried to force his body to move out of his downed position. "Y-Yuki-chan n-no! G-Go away! Its too dangerous!" Naruto struggled out coughing out the blood that came up from his fractured lungs._

 _Yuki turned her glare towards Naruto. "I won't! You're my bestfriend! I refuse to leave you alone!" she shouted at the boy causing him to tear up. He never had anyone to care so much for him. The villagers immediately began muttering between one another._

 _"The demon must've corrupted this poor child." one muttered. "Yes it's sad really" another muttered, "Maybe it's a trick from the demon" another said as the woman with the kunai shrugged. "it matters not! The Demon's whore will just die alongside its mate!" the woman shouted as she ran towards the two children with the weapons._

 _Naruto's eyes widened as Yuki fully stood in front of him with her stance, ready to take on the lady. "YUKI-CHAN NOOO!" Naruto shouted in fear and worry for his friends life as he tried to force his body to get up but the most he could do was a sitting position. Yuki looked at him with a smile, "I'll always protect you"_

"-eam 7..Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. Jonin instructor Kakashi Hatake. Team 8-" Iruka was saying as Naruto snapped out of his thoughts. The blonde was two years older. His hair was the same spiky blonde that it was but his blue eyes lacked the warmth that they once held.

He wore a black trench coat, under the trench coat was a skin tight black shirt with dark blue cargo pants with many pockets and black ninja sandals. He also had the leaf headband tied around his forehead.

Naruto's mind couldn't help but to go back to that fateful day. Him and his friend Yuki always dreamt of the day they would become ninjas. He couldn't help but to think of her now that he was finally able to live out their dream.

" _Yuki-chan, I've done it"_ Naruto thought, out of his peripheral he could see his new teammate Sakura sit next to Sasuke as she immediately began to bother the preteen. This cause Naruto to frown, ".. _Although I could've done without the fangirl"_ he thought as he got up, deciding to join his team.

Sakura, who saw the blonde walking towards them couldn't help but to have mixed feelings. When she first met the blond five years ago, he was a kind idiot child who was always happy. He was deadlast in the academy, but he never gave up. This was the case for three straight years as everything changed over two years ago. He grew cold, distant, and quiet. He even improved so much in the two year time span that he was able to graduate in the top ten percent of the class.

Naruto nodded at the two as he sat next to them with the uchiha nodding back. To Sasuke, Naruto's always been an interesting person. The blond was probably the only other person in the academy to understand his pain, plus he respected the blonde's new found strength. Naruto must've worked hard to be able to catch up and surpass the majority of the class in such a short time frame.

As Iruka finished up teams, the jonin instructors one by one began picking up their genin. Two hours later, team 7 was the only team left in the academy. Sakura groaned, "where is this guy? Did he forget or something?" she asked only to be met with the silence of Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto observed both his teammates. He watched as Sakura paced back and forth in frustration, he could also see the small furrow in Sasuke's brow that gave off that he was getting agitated with the man's tardiness. Naruto sighed, his teammates were right to be mad, there jonin sensei must was a joke, what leader in their right mind would ditch on hid own genin team. It was unprofessional.

The door to the room immediately opened as a gravity defying silver haired man with a jonin flak jacket walked in the room. Sakura immediately pointed an accusing finger at the man "You're late!" she shouted as the man looked embarassed. "Whoa hey I'm sorry I'm late. I just got caught on the road of life trying to get here" the man stated giving a light chuckle as he scratched his head. It was an embarassing silence, the genin members of team 7 all gave him deadpanned unbelieving looks.

 _"tsk he comes two hours late and the best he could come up with was a lame excuse like that"_ Naruto thought frowning disapproving of the man. He didn't seem competent at all. "You're lying!" Sakura shouted. Kakashi, who was identified by iruka as their jonin instructor just chuckled as he analyzed his team.

 _"okay lets see, the pink haired girl is loud and her muscle definition seems to be lacking severely, but from reports that's not suprising seeing as she's in her fangirl phase, the uchiha's a lot more subdued, that's most likely due to what happened with the uchiha clan but I hear he's the prodigy of this generation, and finally…the blond, reports say he use to be a loud brat, but the death of his bestfriend changed him into this serious calculative person, interesting bunch if I do say so myself"_ Kakashi observed.

"First thoughts of this team is, I don't really like you" he eye-smiled. "Meet me on the rooftop" he stated before he body flickered to the rooftops. _"What an odd man"_ Naruto thought as he and Sasuke immediately got up, walking to the stairs that lead to the roof entrance. "Wait for me!" Sakura shouted as she scrambled to follow her team mates.

Five minutes later, the entire team 7 was on the roof top. The genin were sitting out in front of Kakashi who had his face inside of a little book titled " _Make-out Paradise"._ "Okay, now that you're a team, we need to have a learning exercise to get to know each other a little. Let's start off with your name, likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future" Kakashi stated as Sakura raised her hand.

Kakashi eye-smiled. "Yes pinky?" Kakashi asked as Sakura's eye twitched. "Why won't you go first sensei? You know as an example." Sakura asked as Kakashi closed his book. _"For supposedly having brains, she shouldn't need an example for such clear instructions."_ Kakashi thought.

"Hmm…well okay. My name is Kakashi Hatake,..I guess I never really thought about what I like and I don't really dislike anything in particular, and dreams for the future? I guess it's safe to say I don't have one" Kakashi eye-smiled.

Sakura sweat-dropped as the entire team looked at Kakashi bewildered. " _All we've learned was his name_ " Sasuke thought alongside Naruto who had the exact thoughts. "your turn Pinky" Kakashi spoke bringing his book back out as Sakura huffed.

"First off, My name's Sakura Haruno, not pinky" she started with a huff as Kakashi gave a light chuckle much to the girl's ire. "My likes include.."*looks at Sasuke* Sakura blushed "umm m-my dislikes are _Ino-pig_!" she spat the name in disgust. "and those who bully the weak, and my dream for the future is.."*looks at Sasuke and immediately starts to blush and day dream.

".. _Yepp she's got it bad"_ Kakashi thought. "alright you're up next brooder" Kakashi stated pointing at Sasuke who glared at the man. "..The name's Sasuke Uchiha and I don't really like anything in particular. What I hate however is a lot of things, and dreams? I don't have a dream because what I have will become a reality. I'm going to hunt down and kill a certain someone and then restore the Uchiha clan to it's former glory" Sasuke spoke cooly as Sakura looked at him in awe. " _Sasuke-kun's So cool!"_ Sakura thought as Naruto raised a brow at the Uchiha.

Kakashi internally sighed, " _it's gonna take a lot to try to stir this one down the right path_ " Kakashi thought. "Okay and finally you blondie" Kakashi said nodding to Naruto. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki..I don't in particular like anyone or anything besides training..my dislikes are those who are weak and those who prey on the weak, and my goal was to become a ninja. Now that it's reach, I have none" the genin spoke in a voice void of emotion.

Sasuke looked at the blond with interests. It seemed that he valued training as much as him, maybe he'd serve to be useful and not dead weight as a teammate unlike Sakura. Kakashi only internally sighed again. _"Hokage-sama really must've had it out for me. He gave me a fangirl and two emotionally unstable kids. I've got my work cut out for me"_ Kakashi thought crying out tears on the inside.

Inside the outskirts of a small village near Rain Village

Heavy rain fell down in loud splashes as it came upon impact with the ground. The only sound that seemed to overpower the deafening pitter patter of the rain was the sound of three kids laughing joyously. There were three boys, just turned preteens all in a field playing catch with a small red ball.

"Pass it to me!" the first boy shouted with his hands out stretched. He had spiky white hair that gave off a light blue hue with grey eyes.

He wore a dark grey collar shirt with purple sleeves and black cargos. The second boy smiled excitedly, "haha, here it go Tsezuma(seh-zoom-ay)!" he shouted throwing the ball.

He had black hair in a single ponytail with two bangs framing his face. His eyes were a dough brown color. He wore a navy blue slim fit short sleeved shirt with durable khacki shorts.

Tsezuma caught the ball as it hit his chest with a hard impact. "hey not so hard Azume(ah-zah-me)!" Tsezuma spoke as the third boy chuckled, speaking up.

"haha stop whining, it couldn't have hurt", the boy had dark blue almost black wavy hair that went to his shoulders with black eyes. He wore a dark blue thin long sleeved shirt with black cargo shorts.

Tsezuma pouted playfully, "Miaku(me-ah-coo) you know nothing of how hard that ball hit!" he shouted playfully pointing at the boy as the three all laughed.

They continued to have a good time for a few more minutes before deciding to wrap it up and head back into the village. They walked for a couple of minutes before Tsezuma sniffed the air.

"*sniff sniff* Hey, you guys smell that?" He asked with a confused look. He could distinctly smell something burning, Azume and Miaku both looked confused as they started to sniff too, that's when they picked up the smell themselves.

"Come on, let's go" Azume spoke seriously as he immediately began running along with Miaku and Tsezuma. With them running full speed, it only took them a couple of minutes to reach their village. What awaited them left them all in a state of shock.

Everything was engulfed in flames, building after building crumbled to the ground in debris and ash. The air was permeated with a disgusting smell of burnt flesh and iron the deeper you go into the village

Miaku frowned looking in a state of shock, "no no no!" he shouted in disbelief. "Come on, let's check for survivors to get to the bottom of this!" Tsezuma said running off in the village with his two friends following behind him.

The three ran past building after building searching everywhere, on the ground littered bodies with attack wounds and bodies lit on fire. It was total bloodshed. Tsezuma couldn't keep the tears out of his eyes. " _who would do this?"_ he thought in total despair as they continued their search.

"Hey! I got one!" Azume shouted so Miaku and Tsezuma could come to him. Azume was kneeling over a man who had a stab wound through his stomach with burn marks littered across his self, he seemed to be on the verge of death.

"What happened here?" Azume asked the man who immediately began coughing up blood. Azume lifted his head to make sure he didn't choke on his own blood. "th-the ninja came, *cough* t-they started a slaughter and ransacked the village for it's resources" the man coughed out.

Miaku stepped up, "what village were the ninja from?" he asked balling his fists in anger and sadness. "I-I don't know. They had blank headbands" the man said immediately going into a coughing fit afterwards. His wounds started to catch up to him as his breath quickly shortened.

The three couldn't help but to watch in silence as the man took one last gasp before he went silent. The most they could do was allow him not to die alone. Miaku immediately began shaking, tears cascaded down his eyes, all he felt was anger and sadness.

"When we was younger in the orphanage, it had a surplus of kidds because we were so close to the zones where all the fighting takes place…Those ninjas from those villages always come to our village for whatever reason they have and cause destruction! Be it our resources or using our home as another battlefield...they've done it this time...They must pay!" he shouted out in pure hatred.

Tsezuma frowned, "Miaku..you need to calm, if we think irrational it'll only lead to our deaths, we don't even know what village the ninja are aligned with we can't go off attacking every ninja we see, plus we have little to no experience in the ninja arts right now." Tsezuma said as Azume nodded.

"He's right, we'll be asking for our deaths" Azume stated as Miaku growled balling his fist, "I'm tired of having to be a scapegoat for others, they've beaten and used us for too long! There has to be something we could do!" he shouted as Tsezuma and Azuma nodded agreeing.

"The question is what to do?" Azume asked, there was a couple seconds of silence as Tsezuma spoke up. "Let's start training in the ninja arts. We've always talked about training in the arts and we've always had bigger chakra then everyone else in our village. As we are, If we were in the village while it was getting attacked, we would've died too, but if we were training, we could've possibly put a stop to it. We could've protected our home and all of these people wouldn't have had to lose their life for nothing. I'm tired of being weak and scared" he spoke tearing up.

"Yes..I refuse to stay this weak..I refuse to be this vulnerable ever again" Miaku stated balling his fist promising to himself. "We will get stronger together, we won't ever have to be so helpless again" Azume said as the three nodded to one another, silently promising to each other.

*clap clap clap* The three immediately whipped their heads to the sound of someone clapping. "haha, great little speech kids, you moved me."

They saw a small battalion compromised of 5 blank headband wearing ninja as one spoke out. "Yeah haha, too bad you guys won't live to see your dreams come to fruition" one said as they all whipped out kunai knives. " **DIE!** " the last one to speak shouted. Kunai whipped through the air fast as over a dozen rained upon them.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Follow, favorite, and review, all lets me know you're interested in this and that'll make me want to continue this.

Disclaimer: I do now own Naruto or Naruto shippuden.

Chapter 2

Next Day Konoha

*RING* *RING* *R-* Naruto immediately smashed his hand on the unbearable ringing of his alarm clock. It was truly a double edged sword on early mornings like these.

He slowly got up from his bed, placed on his body was a pair of dark blue pajamas as he slowly dragged his body to the bathroom for a shower. Perhaps he wouldn't be tired if his dreams didn't plague him of memories of Yuki-chan.

Naruto adjusted the water to his liking before stripping to hop in the shower. He had no time to waste, from what Kakashi told them yesterday before they left, the real genin training exam would be today at training ground 7 around 7:30.

With Sasuke

Silence. Complete and udder silence permeated the house. The once lovely home filled with warmth was now simply a cold sleeping quarter void of life for the young Uchiha.

Sasuke slowly walked to the kitchen as he was suddenly hit with a wave of nostalgia and a memory.

Flashback

Gigging and sweet laughter filled the kitchen as a muddied Sasuke piggybacking Itachi barged through the doors. Mikoto who was currently humming and cutting up vegetables in a large pot looked at the two boys with a warm smile.

"What have I told you two about coming in the kitchen all dirty, go get cleaned up" she stated with a motherly smile causing the young Sasuke to pout. "aww but mommy I'm hungry" he stated giving her the puppy eyes look.

Before she could break and relent, her husband Fugaku came to her rescue. "Go get cleaned up like your mother asked, food isn't ready yet, but by the time you two are finished perhaps food will be" he stated not once looking up from his paperwork for Konoha police force. He wouldn't let Sasuke even get a chance to catch him with his sad eyes this time!

Itachi chuckled as his precious little brother's attempt. "Come on Sasuke" he spoke turning to offer him a kind smile.

Flashback end

Sasuke sighed, in the kitchen was nothing but deathly silence, but even the silence was enough noise sometimes. It seemed to scream to him memories of the past which made his resolve of killing Itachi that much stronger.

With Sakura

"Sakura honey come eat your breakfast!" Mebuki Haruno, mother of Sakura Haruno yelled upstairs to her daughter. She had prepared an entire breakfast for her daughter as today was a milestone for her. She had prepared toast, eggs, rice cakes, and orange juice for her breakfast.

Loud stomps were heard in rapid session as Sakura ran down the steps, "Mom I told you yesterday that Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat any breakfast" Sakura stated exasperated. Her mother was stubborn!

Mebuki frowned "I remember, but I'd worry much less if you eat before you go, it's dangerous to be doing that hard ninja work without food in your stomach." she said causing Sakura to sigh as she glanced at the meal.

Her stomach immediately growled at the pleasant sight of the delicious food spread across the table as she started to have second thoughts. "Well, I guess I can take a few bites" Sakura blushed in embarrassment as her stomach growled once again causing Mebuki to give her a knowing smile.

30 Minutes Later

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all seemed to make it to the clearing exactly five minutes earlier then the time Kakashi stated, each walking from the direction of their house.

Sakura immediately smiled and waved at Sasuke. "Good morning Sasuke-kun!" Sakura excitedly yelled out to the boy who simply gave a small glare to her. _"how could she be so loud in the morning"_ Sasuke thought with a slight frown as he walked over to a tree in the clearing and lied back against it.

Sakura immediately deflated at the idea that her crush was angry with her, that's when she noticed Naruto passing by her to head to a tree of his own. "Hey good morning Naruto" Sakura spoke to the boy as he gave a curt nod.

This was the last time the three spoke to each other as a pregnant silence erupted. Soon twenty minutes passed by, Kakashi was still absent and the training ground was still quiet.

The three were all in their on thoughts. Sakura, about her getting Sasuke to forgive her, Sasuke, about the training exam they were about to take, and Naruto who was thinking that Kakashi must've had a track record for being late.

30 minutes later

"AHH! WHERE IS HE!" Sakura shouted out in rage. "HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE FIFTY MINUTES AGO!" she fumed pacing around the training ground.

 _"See this is what I meant when I said I could do without her on the team, *sigh* but she is right, he should've been here."_ Naruto thought in slight irritation.

He didn't go through the entire academy only to go to a team with a jonin sensei who wasn't even responsible enough to show up on time.

With Kakashi

He had been hidden within a tree in the training ground watching his team ever since they had come, to say he was disappointed with them was an understatement.

Since they've been their, they barely uttered a word to each other and for them to be a sufficient team, they would need to learn about each other and get along outside of missions. Although he couldn't say he didn't expect it considering the team.

"Hmm, anyway I guess it's time to show myself" the jonin uttered to himself as he shunshined right in front of the three. "HEY YOU'RE LATE AGAIN!" Sakura shrieked out furious at the their sensei's blatant tardiness.

Kakashi simply eye-smiled giving a slight chuckle, "Sorry about that, I was actually on the way here earlier but a black cat seemed to try to cross paths with me so I had to take the other way around the village" the man said causing the three genin to sweatdrop.

 _"Do he honestly believe we would believe the nonsense that's coming out of his mouth"_ Sasuke thought in disbelief. Kakashi suddenly grew serious, "Okay, as I've told you yesterday, the true genin exam is today" he spoke in all seriousness which was a surprise to the genin at such an attitude switch.

Kakashi first pulled out a white alarm clock as he sat it on a vacant tree stump in the edge of the training field. He then brandished a pair of bells out of his kunai pouch dangling them in front of the genin.

"The rules to this test are fairly simple, each of you have two hours to get a bell, if you get one you pass, however if time runs out and you find yourself without a bell, you fail and will be sent back to the academy" Kakashi stated.

 _"What? But it's only two bells and it's three of us, that means someone's automatically being sent back to the academy" S_ akura stated as Sasuke's hands tensed as images of Itachi popped up in his head _. "I've got to get one of those bells, I've come to far to stumble now_!"

Meanwhile Naruto's eyes narrowed. _"Something's got to be up, why would he use a test that basically forces at the least one of us to fail?"_ he thought to himself trying to rack his brain for an answer.

"You can use whatever means necessary to obtain you a bell, I advise you not to hold back and come at me with the intent to kill, because if you don't, you will not get a bell." Kakashi said as he started the timer. "Your two hours starts now!" Kakashi stated as all three genin quickly dispersed

Kakashi couldn't see the genin, but he still could sense their chakra signatures as he chuckled. "It's good to see that they could hide, okay so where was I?" he thought aloud to himself as he pulled out his little orange book.

With Naruto

He was still contemplating the weird rules of the test that they were currently taking. Something just wasn't adding up. Throughout all the various ninja teams he ever saw in Konoha, one similarity between them all was that they were all three cell teams. If Kakashi failed one of them, then they wouldn't be three cells. So what was he missing?

Naruto's eyes suddenly widened, _"I've got to find Sasuke and Sakura_!" he thought before leaving his hiding place to go look for the Uchiha. If he could get Sasuke on board, Sakura would easily follow behind.

With Sasuke

He watched silently through the bushes he was hiding in as he watched Kakashi read his smut. He had to be patient, wait for the exact time to strike. He couldn't afford to not get a bell. Getting sent back to the academy would only postpone his goal of killing Itachi!

Sasuke wasn't dumb though, he knew Kakashi was a jonin so even though the man may seemed like a joke, his skills had to be elite to make it that high on the food chain.

He watched for a couple more minutes, letting Kakashi fill safe as he slowly brandished two kunai. He waited for his opportunity to strike. "Hey Sasuke!" Naruto whispered to get the other boy's attention.

Sasuke whipped his head around leveling the blonde with a glare, "What do you want! We're in the middle of our test!" the Uchiha whispered back. "I think we should work together" Naruto whispered as Sasuke scoffed. He didn't think the blonde was still as dumb as he was in the earlier years.

"Now why would I work with you to get a bell when it's every man for themselves, the first bell we snatch we'll both end up fighting for it" Sasuke whispered then smirked. "Plus I'm a Uchiha, we don't need help, you'll only slow me down" he finished.

Naruto grit his teeth in anger, "for rookie of the year, you sure are an idiot" he spat at the dark haired boy who fiercely glared at him. "Say's the idiot that could've been deadlast" he spat back as they glared at each other in anger.

They kept the glares up for a few seconds before Naruto sighed. "I didn't come here to argue Sasuke. Just hear me out'' the Uzumaki said as the Uchiha reluctantly nodded.

"Sasuke we live in a ninja village where we see ninja teams every single day, each team I've seen in this village has been three cells and come to think of it, our village Konoha prides it's self on it's comradery. So ask yourself this, why are we taking a test that only allows two members to pass and one to fail'' Naruto said. Sasuke thought for a few seconds before his eyes widened .

"..This test is designed to put us against each other to see what we'd do" the Uchida boy whispered as Naruto nodded, he knew Sasuke would figure it out. "Let's find Sakura" Naruto said as Sasuke nodded as the two went off to find the pink haired girl.

With Kakashi

He had heard the entire conversation between the two boys as he couldn't help but to smile. _"I see the training Hokage-sama assigned to Naruto helped tremendously."_ Kakashi couldn't help but to think of the incident that resulted in the young Uchiha girl death that caused the Hokage to put the young Uzumaki through a training course to help him better protect himself.

"Well now I wait I guess" Kakashi spoke to himself as he flicked another page of his book.

With Naruto and Sasuke

They found Sakura with relative ease, the young girl was confused to see the two, but with a quick explanation she with no hesitation joined them.

"Okay first things first we need to know what each other is capable of to build a plan accordingly, I know how to do henge, kawarami, shadow clone jutsu, which is a jutsu that let's me create solid clones, and one wind release technique. My taijutsu skills are also above average" Naruto said as one of Sasuke's eyes quirked.

 _"So he knows elemental jutsu as well"_ Sasuke thought, Naruto was slowly but surely becoming more and more interesting. Sakura's train of thoughts were similar to Sasuke's as her eyes widened _. "He knows elemental jutsu? That's beyond a fresh genin's level! I didn't think anyone in our age group would be capable of such a feat besides maybe Sasuke-kun"_ Sakura thought.

"I can perform all three jutsu taught at the academy, I excel at shurikenjutsu, I have two fire release jutsu and is also well versed at the Uchiha's fighting style" Sasuke spoke up as Naruto gave him an appreciative nod, one thing that he respected and admired was strength and the Uchiha seemed to have that in spades.

Sakura suddenly grew nervous, how could she compare to the two of them, they already knew jutsu the academy didn't teach! The two boys eyed her, waiting for her to add what she knew. "Uhh, I-I only know the three jutsu the academy taught and my taijutsu is slightly below average" She spoke lowering her head in shame, compared to those two she really didn't know anything.

Naruto sighed, that was expected, during the academy Sakura was the type to focus more on her appearance rather than her actual shinobi skills. If they passed this test, he hoped she'd take things more serious.

"Well now that we got that out of the way, we need a plan to take action against Kakashi-sensei, he's an experienced jonin so therefore his skills more than likely outweigh ours" Naruto stated as Sakura eyes lit up. She may didn't have much to offer skill wise at the moment but intelligence wise she was one of the top back in the academy, maybe she could be of some use after all.

Forty-five Minutes Later

Kakashi flicked his book to another page as he inwardly sighed. _"They only have an hour and fifteen minutes left and they've yet to set a move, I wonder do I have to go after them"_ he thought _._

His answers were soon met by Naruto and Sasuke coming out from separate sides of the training field rushing him from two sides.

The two quickly started attacking the Jonin with their respective taijutsu styles. Kakashi eye-smiled. "Nice to see you finally arrive" Kakashi stated blocking a kick by the Uchiha. He then had to duck a power punch threw by Naruto as he quickly backed up.

"You two seem pretty fast, I may have to put my book up for this" Kakashi said as he put the orange booklet in his back pocket. Sasuke smirked, "We're not like the rest in the academy" he stated as they rushed the jonin again.

Naruto threw a barrage of punches with Kakashi dodging each strike. Sasuke quickly jumped in from the side throwing a jumping kick as Kakashi ducked, grabbing the Uchiha leg tossing him.

Sasuke immediately flipped mid air grabbing six kunai as Naruto backed as he launched them at the jonin. Kakashi quickly whipped out a kunai knocking them all out of harms way.

"You're good, but I'm afraid not good enough" Kakashi eye-smiled at the two genin who only smirked. "Kakashi-sensei you're a jonin, you should know better than anybody not to underestimate an opponent" Naruto said rushing the man.

Naruto threw a uppercut that was immediately blocked, he then followed it up with a fast sweep kick as Kakashi quickly jumped over it. Sasuke then jumped in throwing a punch towards Kakashi's head as the man blocked.

Sasuke then followed up the punch with another one from his other hand as Kakashi kept up his guard to block.

Sasuke then twisted his body around Kakashi's guard, "You're open!" he yelled aiming to drive his knee up Kakashi's skull. The man being a jonin acted fast, grabbing the boy's knee.

This however left him open for Naruto as he tried to grab the bells off Kakashi's waist. Before he could however, the man replaced himself with a log.

He chuckled, "If I were another shinobi you would've for sure got me there" he eye-smiled at the two. For them to start working together on the fly, their teamwork was good.

"I hope this isn't all you've got though, because at this rate you won't get a bell." Kakashi said in all seriousness. Instead of answering, Naruto performed the hand sign for his shadow clones.

Kakashi eyes immediately widened, " _so when he was assigned that training they taught him the shadow clone jutsu as well_ " Kakashi thought.

Naruto rapidly created three clones back to back with each clone brandishing a kunai as he picked them up, launching them like they were missiles towards the jonin sensei.

Kakashi moved to the side of the first one, grabbed it's legs and span around before launching it at one of the other clones causing both to puff out of space. Before he could attack the third, it suddenly puffed out of space in front of him, surrounding him in fog.

Sasuke immediately flew through hand signs, "Firestyle Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled. A massive fireball drew from his mouth as it collided with the puff of smoke.

Kakashi immediately replaced himself with a log as he backed from the fog. " _So Sasuke has jutsu too, he was right, they are quite different from the other konoha rookies."_ Kakashi thought staring at the two boys who were side to side.

"It's over Kakashi!" Sasuke yelled as he and Naruto both started to fly through hand signs. "Firestyle Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" "WindStyle Great Breakthrough" Sasuke and Naruto yelled in tangent.

The miniature fireballs all turned massive in size. Kakashi had to immediately jump back to dodge the first one as he flew through his own hand signs. "Earth Style Mud Wall!" Kakashi yelled smacking the ground as a large earth wall rose from the ground.

The mud wall blocked five massive fireballs as Kakashi chuckled, _"these kids are impressive"_ he thought amazed. His praise was cut short as he had to whip out a kunai to knock down all the kunai knives that were raining upon him.

He looked around for the assailant to see Sakura, what confused him was the smirk on her face as she held up a sign. Kakashi's eyes immediately widened noticing the sign as he whipped his head down to look at the kunai.

"Explosive tags!" he yelled out in surprise. He had no time to waist as he jumped high and away from the explosive papers connected to the kunai.

Seeing him midair again, Naruto quickly went through his handsigns for another great breakthrough. "Augh!" Kakashi grunted trying to block some of the wind from the attack as it sent him higher into the air.

"Now Sasuke!" Naruto yelled as the boy nodded, "I'm on it!" Sasuke said whipping out six shuriken throwing them at the airborne Kakashi.

Kakashi grabbed one of his kunai, deflecting the trajectory of the shurikens headed for his body, two of the shuriken seemed to be headed for the bells! Kakashi immediately deflected them but his eyes widened seeing another shuriken heading for the bells as it was hidden behind the other shurikens.

Before it could cut the strings of the bells, the shuriken puffed to be Naruto as the boy launched for the bells. _"I-I got it!"_ he thought feeling the bells in his hands. _"During that smoke cloud he must've created a clone to take his place as he henged into one of Sasuke's shuriken!"_ Kakashi thought. What a clever tactic!

As soon as he was closing his hands around them, Kakashi kawarami'd with Sasuke switching spots with the Uchiha as the two boys collided falling back to the ground. "ugh dammnit" Naruto grunted as Sasuke grabbed his head from the collision.

Before they could move off the ground, Kakashi flew through handsigns, "Earthstyle Dark Swamp!" he yelled, the ground condensed as it started to shift and formed into mud, catching Naruto and Sasuke, it even spread out to catch Sakura from her little kunai throwing hiding place.

All three of the genin tried to move, but their efforts were fruitless as they were deeply rooted in the mud. "Good attempt, but it's over, you fail" Kakashi stated eye smiling, on cue the alarm ringed.

All three genin heads hung low in disappointment. Sasuke was in denial, _"NO, NO th-that plan was spotless"_ Sasuke thought in anger. He didn't come this far to be sent back to the academy.

Naruto frowned, their teamwork was almost spotless. He then sighed, Kakashi was a jonin after all. He couldn't go back to the academy though! It was his and Yuki's dream to become ninja, he couldn't rot in a classroom.

"It's only one thing I have to say to you three" Kakashi spoke in a solemn voice. Sakura could barely hold back the tears _"i-if only I trained harder, we maybe would've got the bells" she thought in complete sadness._

They had thought that their teamwork would be enough for them to pass, they had thoroughly made their plan to keep Kakashi on the ropes and they failed. "You pass" Kakashi spoke in a lighter tone eye-smiling at the three.

It was a complete silence as Kakashi chuckled. "You three passed the test, from listening to Naruto's and Sasuke's conversation earlier, I saw that you three realized the tests true agenda, teamwork. You just didn't realize it never had anything to do with the bells physically. Look underneath the underneath. Yes I told you that your mission objective was to get a bell and It was two bells with it being three of you, meaning someone was gonna be without a bell. Instead of working alone and abandoning each other, you three decided to work together. As a ninja, if you don't follow the objective of your mission you're considered trash. That's true, but if you abandon a comrade in a time of need then you're worse then trash." Kakashi spoke softly as the three genin were focusing all their attention on the man.

Kakashi then released the mud swamp, freeing the genin. "Team 7 is officially a genin squad, congratulations" he spoke as Sakura immediately jumped in the air in joy. Even Naruto and Sasuke couldn't help the huge smiles that appeared on their faces.

With Tsezuma Azume and Miaku

Tsezuma could feel his heart beating at a very fast pace. He watched wide-eyed as the kunai cut through the air heading for them. He didn't want to die! He was so young and he had finally found what he wanted to do with his life.

It couldn't end here. His body started to feel weird, especially in his arms. It was like he could feel his bones shifting and oddly it didn't hurt.

His eyes immediately widened as his bones in his arm suddenly ripped through his skin and started to connect forming a circular shield of bone.

Tsezuma immediately rushed in front of his friends as the kunai rained upon them as he used the shield of bone to deflect them.

The men with the blank masks immediately gasped, "N-No way!" one of the men said. "Is that the kekkai Genkai from the Kaguya clan? I thought they were all dead" another asked.

The man who seemed to be the captain soon spoke up. "Apparently one must've had a kid before they got wiped out, but how odd, he doesn't even have those little red dots on his forehead to compare him with the clan" he stated.

Tsezuma eyes widened, "C-Clan?" he murmured. Miaku and Azume both stared at Tsezuma in shock from behind the boy and the shield, they couldn't believe he used his actual bones to protect them. "Ts-Tsezuma, y-you saved us" Azume spoke amazed.

It was a few seconds before Miaku quickly broke out of his stupor suddenly standing up with anger in his eyes. "So you're the ones who killed everyone huh?" he asked balling his fists in rage.

The captain looked interested, here was a boy that displayed anger instead of fear when seeing a mass killer, he smirked, "We did, each and everyone in this small pathetic village, the old, women, and children all the same" the man spoke crudely with a maniac glint in his eyes. They didn't leave not one person alive.

Tsezuma body froze in shock as Azume glared at the men. Miaku started shaking in uncontrollable rage, tears rolled down his eyes as he glanced at all the carnage in the village and the many bodies ablaze with fire, these three were the only survivors.

"Y-You're monsters" he whispered, the man immediately busted into laughter. Children were so young and naïve these days, they didn't understand the intricacies of the world around them. "..Boy, in this world you have to take what you want, people don't just give it to you, we needed something only your village could provide for us, so it was natural for us to take it" the man spoke in all seriousness. This was a dog eat dog world.

This caused Miaku to growl, "You can't justify a reason for taking innocent lives!" he yelled out. Tsezuma quickly looked at the boy, "Calm down Miaku, don't let him egg you on" he spoke urgently. They had to think carefully if they were to survive this.

"Forget it! I can't sit by and hear him talk knowing that he played the part of massacring our home!" he yelled charging the man. "NO" Tsezuma shouted, "MIAKU!" Azume shouted trying to grab the boy but he maneuvered out of the way.

The captain watched as his guards stepped up, brandishing kunai preparing to slice the boy down. He got an evil glint in his eye, "No, let me" he said smirking as the two blank headband wearing ninja stood back.

 _"I won't sit back and cower!"_ Miaku shouted in his head rushing the man. As he was upon him, he threw a punch that was easily dodged. He threw another, only for it to be easily dodged as well. The man threw a powerful uppercut to his stomach that lifted Miaku off his feet.

"Argh!" Miaku grunted out in pain. He could taste the metallic taste of blood entering his mouth. "You're too weak!" the ninja shouted crushing a bow onto Miaku's back forcing him back to the ground where he impacted hard.

"MIAKU!" Tsezuma and Azuma shouted as both boys rushed to his rescue. The four ninja quickly stood in their way as Miaku got beat. The captain looked down at Miaku as the boy glared hatefully at him. He couldn't stand to see the ninja smiling, it disgusted him.

"Scum!" Miaku spat on the face of the man, spit mixed with blood dribbled downed his face as he looked downright pissed. The captain looked at his ninja, wiping his face with his sleeves "make them suffer" he spoke out in anger as the ninja nodded.

Miaku could barely look up towards his friends, his entire body ached in pain, he had virtually no shinobi training and was attacked by the power of one. "N-No" he coughed out trying to get up.

"AHHH!" Miaku yelled out in pain, he felt the knee of the captain digging in his back as he was grabbed by his hair to be forced to watch his friends fight.

Tsezuma quickly used his bone shield to attack the shinobi, but with his civilian speed, he couldn't hit neither of the two shinobi surrounding him. One of them suddenly used great speed to throw a kick at him as he barely had enough time to put his shield up.

The brunt of the attack forced him back as his shield smacked against his chest. While he was off balanced, the other ninja came from the side punching him square in the face. Blood dribbled out his mouth as the hit seemed to daze him.

 _"I-Is this the power that ninja posses?"_ Tsezuma asked himself before he was kicked in the side towards the other ninja as his shield fell out of his hands.

For Azume, his beating was worst. He had no kekkai Genkai to use as a protection. The two ninja quickly overwhelmed him. "ungh! You bastards!" he shouted as he stumbled backwards from a knee to the face by one of the men.

He felt as if he could black out at any moment, but before he did, he would go out fighting. He threw a slow and sloppy punch at the ninja who rushed him but it being to slow, he was quickly grabbed getting flipped hard to the ground.

Miaku was forced to watch all this as the man chuckled, "you see what your rash decisions caused. I would've gave you all quick and painless deaths, but you decided to piss me off."

The man and his ninja continued to beat Miaku, Tsezuma, and Azume for almost thirty minutes now. They beat the three boys to a pulp as each boys body housed a few fractured bones.

Their entire bodies was lit with pain, they barely could move their limbs _. "A-Are we going to die here?"_ Azume questioned himself, his left eye was closed as blood dribbled from his mouth.

"Pile them up so we can finish this" the captain spoke. The ninja grabbed the almost lifeless body of Tsezuma as they tossed him on top of Azume.

The captain then went to grab Miaku "N-No" he murmured, blood pouring from his mouth as he was grabbed by the throat and threw into the other two boys as they all grunted in pain.

"Let's do this" The captain said as he and his ninja started going through hand signs for a fire release jutsu. Before they could finish however, their was an enormous spike of Chakra that caused the men to pause. It was very dark and powerful.

They tried to pinpoint the chakra but it seemed to originate from in front of them. Miaku's body slowly started to rise. The men were shocked as they watched huge waves of chakra come off of Miaku.

Suddenly their windpipes seemed to be getting crushed as they all grabbed at their necks. "Wh-What's happening?" one of the ninja choked out. It felt like an imaginary hand had a firm grip around their neck that they couldn't get loose.

One by one, the ninja went out by suffocation as the captain was the last one, falling to his knees. Miaku slowly walked up to the man with his head down as the pressure from the choking increased with each step.

"argh!" the man choked out, he was confused! These were supposed to be regular children but yet one possessed a kekkai genkai and the other housed a powerful chakra and jutsu that he knew nothing of!

"You and your group killed everyone here without any remorse. Innocent people with lives to live and family and friends to live for. You took the only things me and my friends had and then tried to make us suffer more for it. It's unforgiveable!" Miaku looked up with a powerful glare at the man.

The captain eyes widened in complete shock and horror at what he saw. " **DIE!** " MIaku yelled as the pressure of the choking increased so high that red finger marks seemed to appear on the man's throat before the invisible fingers suddenly broke through the barrier of skin on the throat as blood splashed out on Miaku's face.

Miaku stared unmoving at the lifeless corpse of the man, he could still see the surprise and fear etched on his face, for what the man saw in Miaku's eyes were thought to only be in folklore.

The Rinnegan. The pair of eyes weren't the light violet they were said to be in history however. No, these looked more frightening, these looked lifeless. They were black.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Follow, Favorite, and Review if you like this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden, only the OC's.

"Hey Sasuke-kun do you want to go out on a celebratory date?" Sakura smiled sweetly at her crush. Kakashi-sensei had just left after telling them that their first day of training was tomorrow. Sasuke frowned at the girl, and without a reply walked off. He had better things to do like training instead of going on a date with what could possibly be his biggest fangirl.

Naruto sighed as he saw Sakura's smile immediately deflate. He didn't know which was more pathetic, her repeated failed attempts of reaching the last Uchiha's heart or her horrid shinobi skills. Seeing as he cared not for her love life he opted with the latter.

"Sakura, if I may ask what's the reason you've become a ninja?" Naruto asked. The pink haired girl immediately looked at the strange boy, wondering where the question came from. "Why do you ask?" she answered his question with a question.

Naruto glared at her suddenly causing the girl to squeak. "If you're only a ninja to impress Sasuke then do this team a favor and quit. As your comrades we entrust you with our lives to have our backs in missions and if your head or heart's not really in the place you'd only get us or yourself killed." Naruto stated in a matter of fact tone.

Sakura fiercely glared back at the blond. "Sasuke-kun isn't the reason I want to become a ninja! How dare you try to judge me like you're some accomplished ninja, last I knew I graduated the academy just like you!" she spat, the nerve of him!

"Being a ninja isn't a game, I'm not going to watch you play ninja while putting all your focus on a relationship that isn't even there. If you put that same devotion in training then maybe you'd be a skilled shinobi." Naruto said folding his arms.

Sakura shook with rage. He who had been the deadlast for the first two years of the academy had no right to judge anyone's skills! Sakura smirked, "Throughout the entire academy I've been ranked ahead of you, even when you seemed to pass majority of the class I still had higher points than you, so how can you talk of my skills when you can't even compare" she spoke up smugly.

Naruto unfolded his arms, "hmph, well then how about a spar. If you can land a hit I'll take it all back, but if I'm right then everything I said is true" Sakura scoffed. _"As_ if!" she thought nodding with a determined glint in her eyes _"This'll be a piece of cake"_.

Both got into their respected fighting styles. Sakura tensed her muscles as Naruto looked almost unfazed. They stared at each other for a few seconds as Naruto made a come hither motion with his fingers as Sakura came rushing in.

"Chaaaa!" Sakura yelled immediately launching a power punch towards the Uzumaki's head. _"sloppy"_ Naruto easily sided throwing a solid punch to the girl's open ribs. Sakura eyes widened as Naruto followed up the punch with a solid kick to the stomach that easily catapulted her backwards.

"Y-You hit m-me!" Sakura glared struggling to stand with her aching ribs and stomach. "Of course, we're ninja, when you engage a male enemy do you think their going to avoid hitting you because you're a girl?" Naruto asked. Sakura had a lot of reevaluating to do. Being a ninja was nothing like the little movies she's been watching on tv. Sakura ignored the question, clutching her fists.

"Try again" Naruto uttered, the girl Immediately rushed the boy, _"I will get a hit!"_ she thought determinedly. She quickly launched into a series of fast strikes towards the blonde's face with the boy easily siding. "You can't side every attack!" Sakura shouted suddenly switching up her style of attack throwing a sweeping kick towards his legs.

Naruto immediately jumped over the girl's legs as she whipped out a kunai. "Clone jutsu!" Sakura yelled, two clones of Sakura appeared by her side as they all charged for Naruto all the while switching positions to confuse him.

" _Nice tactic, but I won't fall to this illusion"_ Naruto thought quickly jumping back whipping through hand signs. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" he shouted. A powerful compacted burst of wind slammed into Sakura and her clones easily disrupting the illusion sending the girl careening into a tree in the clearing.

"Argh!" Sakura shouted out in pain. She weakly tried to stand up, however before she could move a kunai was pointed at her. Naruto shook his head, "This is over". Sakura immediately lowered her head in shame.

Their spar didn't even last long. She truly was a failure of a kunoichi. "You failed at getting a hit and your body couldn't even last long, most likely due to the fact you're only as fit as a civilian. At your level you probably couldn't beat an civilian adult" Naruto spoke, she was just as he had thought. Weak and a liability. He wouldn't allow a teammate of his to be so.

Sakura felt horrible. Naruto was a fellow genin, they graduated the academy together and yet him and Sasuke seemed to be leagues ahead of her in terms of skill. She felt so hopeless and weak. Naruto noticed the look on her face and slightly paused up. It reminded him of _that_ day. How helpless and pitiful he had been feeling not being able to save _her_. "..That feeling you feel right now, that feeling of being not able to do anything, use it as motivation when you train now, it'll serve as fuel to keep pushing you, even if you're weak now, you don't have to remain that way, anyone can grow" Naruto spoke firmly stretching out a hand to help her up. He couldn't help but see flashes of his younger self as he looked down at Sakura. Sakura looked up at Naruto's hand biting her lip hesitating to reach for it.

"H-How come you're helping me?" she questioned timidly. There was a flash of pain as emptiness once again appeared in his eyes. "Because I know how it is to be unable to do anything. Understand we're not friends. It's just that weakness took everything away from me so it's natural for me to try to abolish it in a comrade".

With Tsezuma Azume and Miaku

"We need to get everything out of this village that's ninja related. We're on our own when it comes to learning so anything can help" Tsezuma stated. They all had backpacks they had found in the battered remains of the village. So far they only collected what they found on the dead ninja which was mostly money, kunai, and shuriken. Whatever they seemed to take from the village must've had been sealed on their bodies or already transported.

Miaku looked confused. "Our village wasn't a ninja village though" he stated, he doubt their village had anything related to ninja. Tsezuma nodded, "yeah that's true but ninja are very common and popular, I'm sure every village at least holds basic knowledge of the shinobi and their arts."

"Yeah you're right, I guess I wasn't thinking about that" Miaku spoke softly. Truthfully he wasn't thinking about much at all but how he killed all of those ninjas. The three had been walking in a tense silence, they were all on edge from the shinobi attacking them and they remained silent because as they walked through the village it was hard to remain composed.

Even though they were all orphans, the people here were kind and they had grew up here. Without parents, it was the only home they knew.

"We should check the library and archives first" Azume spoke up, "They are the most likely to have the most information although I don't know what we'll see in the archives considering that those ninja may have gotten to them" he finished with the other two nodding.

It took them about nine minutes to reach the library seeing as they were already in the general area. The building itself was halfway burnt to the ground. The front half of the store was completely ash except for the few book shelves that seemed to survive the fire.

They quickly split up searching for any books they could find. A lot of books were burnt but the ones with the thicker covers seemed to be readable although singed. After a few minutes in Miaku noticed something. "I found one!" he shouted. The book cover was burnt but the words were noticeable. It read, _"The Ins and Outs Of_ Chakra", it was a book that detailed what chakra was, how to unlock it and a little tidbit about chakra theory.

"Nice, let's see what else's in here" Azume spoke up. It took them about 25 minutes for the flames and smoke to effect them to the point they needed to leave. They went through every book that was readable and not in ashes that they could, only being able to find a total of 3 books besides the one Miaku found.

They read, _"The Art's Of Shinobi" which was a book about the different ninja arts and how shinobi used them. "Shinobi Villages And Clans" which carried basic knowledge about the ninja villages and their famous clans. Lastly, "Famous And Infamous Shinobi History" which housed info about the 3 great ninja wars and famous ninja during each era._

"Okay guys let's head to the Archives" Tsezuma said as they finished putting the books in their backpacks. The archives were a little on the other side of the village, located near the middle of the village. It took the trio about 23 minutes to get there.

What awaited them caused them to pause. "Well..I guess you were right about there might not being anything" Miaku muttered towards Azume. The entire building was burnt to a crisp.

"Well this was a no go, how about we try to see if there's any good food in the markets that we can pack" Azume said


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden, only the OCs.

A/N: Some of Tsezuma's Azume's and Miaku's personalities are getting shown through this chapter.

A weak later

Kakashi had been trying hard to get the team to bond. To have a sense of comradery so that he could build up their teamwork before he focused on their actual skills, but so far his attempts seemed to fail.

Surprisingly, Sakura the huge fangirl seemed to dial it down a notch this past week and seemed more focused and it helped the team's teamwork, but it was nowhere near enough. Sasuke was too distant and reserved and Naruto was always serious and wasn't much when it came to conversations. This left Sakura, who Sasuke constantly ignored and Naruto barely spoke to.

Kakashi sighed, even if somehow they work good with their current relationships with each other, they'd never be as great as they could be. They'd always miss certain factors only teamwork and faith in each other would bring.

He couldn't help but to think of his own genin team in that regard. If they had only displayed better teamwork and got along with each other from the start, then maybe his teammates would be alive right now. It wasn't their skill that failed them, it was their lack of acknowledgement towards each other.

He wouldn't allow his first successful team as a sensei to follow in similar footsteps, that's why he had ran his plans through the Hokage before he came here.

Kakashi sighed as he stared down at his genin team from a tree he was hiding in to observe them without them knowing.

He looked specifically at Sasuke and frowned. _"I know he's going to probably hate this the most"_ Kakashi sighed once more before puffing right in front of them.

"Good morning" Kakashi eye-smiled. Sasuke raised his brow as Sakura looked shocked. "Y-You're actually on time today!" she spoke bewildered.

Kakashi chuckled embarrassedly, "Is it that shocking?" he asked scratching his head as Naruto gave a deadpanned expression. "Haha, well I guess I deserve that" Kakashi shrugged.

"What are we doing today Kakashi-sensei, is it more teamwork exercises?" Sakura asked catching the interest of the two boys on the team as the three stared at the lone jonin. For the week, they had been doing nothing but team exercises.

"Well to answer your question Sakura, yes and no" he eye-smiled at her. "We're actually going to start your real training now and maybe start taking up a few missions but nonetheless we'd be working on your teamwork as well." He stated.

This immediately confused the genin. _"What does he mean?"_ Naruto wondered, Sakura and Sasuke soon adopting the same confused face as him. Kakashi noticing the looks spoke up.

"What I intend to do could potentially hit 3 birds with one stone. Not only could your skills increase, but your experience and teamwork will too" he decidedly beat around the bush.

Neither of the three genin spoke up as Kakashi had their full attention on this supposed great mystery training. _"Guess I should just come out with it I perhaps"_ he mentally shrugged.

"We're staying at the Uchiha Compound with Sasuke."

There was complete silence in the field for a few seconds until a surprising shout from Sasuke erupted. "WHAT!"

Kakashi repeated himself as Sasuke immediately shook his head no. "Absolutely not! The Uchiha Compound is for Uchiha's only, you can't disrespect my clan buy staying their as if you belong" the Uchiha spoke in outrage. How could he try to dishonor his clan like that!

Kakashi sighed, he knew something of the sort would happen, "Look Sasuke, we were all comrades of the Uchiha clan so it won't be disrespect, and it's only three months and we're gone." He tried to get Sasuke to understand.

Sasuke still shook his head no "I won't allow it" he said as Naruto folded his arms. "I prefer not to be near this team more than necessary as well" He said, Sakura only blushed thinking of the idea of staying at Sasuke's for three months.

Kakashi sighed once again, this was the exact reason why they needed to be together for so long. "Look guys, I've already got the Okay from the Hokage, I hope you two can truly understand that this is best for our team. Being together can help us build a better bond and that'll strengthen not only ourselves but our teamwork for any future missions" the jonin said.

"We don't need bonds to display teamwork, bonds will only slow us down and cloud our judgement, you saw what our teamwork was like, it's pretty good and we don't even have a bond" Naruto said stating the facts, he was a living example of how bonds made you weak.

If Yuki and him didn't have a bond, she wouldn't have tried to save him those years ago, she would be living, but it was their bond that clouded her judgement to think she can take on a group of civilians and it was their bond that made him too weak to protect himself and her.

Kakashi only looked at the blonde with a sad gaze, "..That's not true, when you truly have something to fight for, that's when you can live up to your fullest potential. The reason Konoha is at the top isn't because we have strong ninja, all five of the great nations have strong ninja. The reason Konoha is on top is because we pride ourselves in displaying comradery. It's our strength and belief in each other that allows us to fight just a little bit harder than the rest" Kakashi spoke passionately.

"Now Naruto, Sakura, go pack for three months worth of clothing and head towards Sasuke's house in the Uchiha's district it's nun-negotiable, we're done here" Kakashi said.

"Yes sensei" Sakura bowed as Naruto just walked away. Sasuke fumed holding a dark look as he headed home.

On the outside he may have seemed pissed but in his mind, Kakashi's words were replaying in his head.

"There is no point to this" Naruto spoke to himself putting his clothes in his pack. Kakashi was trying to force them to get along, that would only make things worse, why couldn't he see that!

He then put his hygiene items in his bag as he slumped it over his shoulder looking at his dump of an apartment. It was a 1 room that soon as you walked out, the kitchen and the living room would connect right out front. The roof had holes in it where the white paste of the paint would slowly fall to the ground, everything was small and almost too wore out to use, and the shower only spewed out a few spurts of cold water.

This place had to be the worst in the entire village. Fitting as it was home to the lone jinchuriki of the village. "Hmph, it's no lie when I say I won't be homesick for these three months" Naruti spoke aloud to himself as he headed for the door. _"I only hate the fact I have to room at Sasuke's."_

1hr 30 minutes later

Naruto sighed as he stared at the deserted streets of the Uchiha's District. This place brought up many painful memories.

 _Flashback_

" _Come on Naruto-kun!" Yuki yelled grabbing the young blonde along with her as she rushed for her home. They were getting out of classes early for today and Yuki thought it'd be a good idea to play at her home._

 _Naruto immediately grew nervous. "A-Are you sure Y-Yuki-chan, a lot of th-the grownups don't like me for some reason" he spoke sadly._

 _Yuki slowed her run to a complete stop as she looked at her friend and frowned. She couldn't help but feel bad for him. He was kind, loyal, and trustworthy. He truly didn't deserve the unfair treatment the villagers gave him._

" _I'm positive" Yuki spoke softly squeezing Naruto's hand assuring him. "O-Okay" he said as she resumed her run._

 _Naruto watched as they speeded pass many civilians who eyed him in disgust. They kept their pace up, weaving through the crowded streets of Konoha._

" _We'll be there soon!" Yuki shouted looking back to her friend. Naruto nodded as his grip on her hand tightened._

 _Within ten minutes time, Yuki slowed her run to a walk as the Uchiha district became noticeable. It was a large compound of houses, surrounded by a large gate protected by two Uchiha guards._

 _Yuki waved at the two men as Naruto tried to shrink behind her, hoping to not bring attention to himself._

 _The two guards nodded at the girl, letting them both pass, only giving the blonde a look over._

 _As the duo entered the compound, Naruto was awed. It looked like a many village. Their were a few store shops, food shops, and many houses inside of the compound, all were Uchiha owned._

 _What was even more amazing to the child was the fact that nobody was glaring at him! The many people who littered the streets were minding their business, heading to their destination while greeting each other in the fleeting moments before they were out of sight._

" _This place is amazing!" Naruto laughed looking at his friend. Yuki saw the joy in her best friends deep blue eyes and couldn't help but to blush. She quickly looked away so he wouldn't notice._

" _O-Of course it is baka, I told you so" she playfully blew her tongue out at him._

 _Flashback end_

He remembered coming here with Yuki every other day, they would just run around and play, then head to her home to get something to eat. The Uchiha's district was the only place Naruto had felt safe. It was the only place people didn't look at him like he was the plague walking.

He kept at a silent pace as he walked to Sasuke's place. It was the largest house, located in the middle of the district seeing as his father was the clan head.

After a few minutes of walking, Naruto reached the large home and knocked on the door.

Not long afterwards, Sasuke swung open the door throwing a hard glare at Naruto who glared back. "So are you going to let me come in or will you continue to be a annoyance" Naruto shot at the Uchiha. "Hmph, you're the only annoyance that's around, acting like you're so strong and mighty, you must think my skills are inferior to yours!" Sasuke said, glare intensifying.

Naruto folded his arms, "I haven't once said that, I can't help it if you feel that way" Naruto shot back intensifying his glare as well.

"You don't have to say it, it's all in the way that you act, I am the last Uchiha and no one is my better, remember that!" Sasuke spat at the blonde. The air around the two seemed to thicken as they chose to stare murderously at the other.

"..Hey Naruto!, come on in" Kakashi eye-smiled putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "We were actually waiting on you, Sakura's already here" Kakashi finished dusting off flower from the apron he wore over his ninja clothes. He seemed to had been cooking.

"Tsk" Sasuke muttered putting his hands in his pocket as he walked off from the front door. Kakashi sighed as Naruto silently walked in. _"This is exactly why we need this."_

With Tsezuma Azume and Miaku

The three had been on the road for a week now heading towards the nearest town. They had been reading the books they acquired, splitting them.

Miaku had the book "The Ins and Outs of Chakra", Tsezuma had "Shinobi Villages and Clans", and Azume had "The Art's of Shinobi". The last book, "Famous and Infamous Shinobi History" would go to whoever finished first.

"According to the map, we'll reach Kenziku Town in a few minutes, it's near the border of the Land of Fire." Azume said rolling the map back up. Tsezuma nodded, looking up from his book. He had gotten pretty far during the past week, reading 2/3 of the book.

He couldn't lie, the reason he had chose this book first, was because he hoped to find the Kaguya Clan those ninja had mentioned. The clan were any clue he had of knowing his family name and the book didn't disappoint.

Throughout reading, he had found out a lot of interesting information. He had read all about Konoha, Suna, and the Mist so far and he couldn't help but to be pleased. Konoha seemed to be the most powerful out of the three he read with all of their amazing clans and customs but it was the Mist that caught his attention.

After giving the background info about the village, their way of life, and past and present Kages, it started to mention their clans. Right after the Hozuki clan name, was the Kaguya.

It told of a powerful clan who birthed people with wild spirits and a thirst for battle. It was said that their bloodlust was so high they attacked Kirigakure and even when surrounded by enemies they fought to the death instead of surrendering to satisfy it. The book then brought up exactly what Tsezuma was looking for, it spoke of a very rare Kekkai Genkai which barely ever appeared in their members. The ability to manipulate their bones with Chakra. It was said that they could harden their bones to make them unbreakable and could even protrude or pull them out and shape them for battle.

"Its about time" Miaku spoke, the walk was annoying at best. It did however give him lots of time to read the book about chakra. He had only a couple more pages to finish. He had learned what exactly chakra was and how to manipulate it.

When he sent chakra to his eyes everything grew amazing! He was able to see the chakra of every living organism including his, Tsezuma's and Azume's. His vision was clearer than he had ever knew vision could possibility be, seeing miles ahead if he chose to.

Speaking of his eyes, they were a strange thing to him. Ever since they appeared he had been able to sense any creature within a few miles radius and that wasn't even the strangest thing. When he sent a large amount of chakra to his black ring patterned eyes, everything turned black and white. Things in his surroundings seemed to move a little slower as he moved. It was as if he was moving through a different plane of existence without gravity to limit his movement speed. After stopping the chakra flow to his eyes however, everything turns back to normal leaving him feeling quite drained as it seemed to take a large toll on his chakra supply.

Five minutes later, the trio were inside of the small town. It was around early evening so there were quite a bit of people walking about. Be it kids just getting out of school, people walking in and out of shops, or a few couple's taking a nice stroll.

Everyone seemed to just be enjoying the day. It was almost sad really, how similar their home was to this. In a blink of an eye, a nice view like this could become ablaze with Carnage.

Tsezuma frowned, "..lets go find a hotel guys, then we can do a little looking around" he spoke up with the two following him to see if they could find a place to sleep for a few days.

After talking to a few strangers who lived here, they were directed towards the nearest hotel that was supposedly close by the shopping district. Taking the directions, within twenty minutes, they reached their destination.

It was a average sized hotel called "The Cozy Turtle". When entering, the doorbell chimed as a woman sitting at the front desk greeted them with a nice smile. She had curly brown hair that reached her shoulder blades with dark green eyes and thick rimmed black glasses. She wore what appeared to be the hotel uniform which consisted of an all dark green blazer and pants combination.

"Good evening, my name is Mia Minome, how can I help you kids, are you lost?" She asked, smile still present. Tsezuma immediately frowned, "Hey we're not any kids! We can fully take care of ourselves!" Tsezuma shouted indignant surprising the woman. Calling them snotty nosed kids was an insult! They stopped being kids a week ago.

"Haha sorry, what my friend means to say is, we're not lost, we're actually here to get a room" Azume spoke apologetically. The woman immediately brushed off the apology.

"No no, I'm sorry, I shouldn't of assumed, you're all so young so I assumed you needed to find your parents" as soon as the words left her mouth their seemed to be a difference in each of the boys.

" _This lady talks entirely too much"_ Miaku thought, he stayed quiet trying not to bring much attention to himself. He didn't know who all would react to his eyes are not.

Noticing the change in the atmosphere the lady quickly sputtered out another apology.

Few minutes later

"Ahh that lady sure was something else" Tsezuma spoke up as the three walked up to their room. They decided on getting one room with two beds. Azume shook his head, "I mean not really, she just thought we were some random kids looking for their mom or dad. It no doubt had to have happened before" he shrugged.

Miaku only scoffed, "yeah but people really shouldn't just assume things. It's stupid". Tsezuma slid the card over the room lock as the door unlocked. After twisting the knob, the three walked into the room. It was spacious, with two large beds, a mini fridge and a futon.

The three looked at the two beds then looked at each other for a few seconds. They then looked back to the beds.

"Call A Bed!" Tsezuma and Azume both yelled rushing to the beds. Miaku tried rushing along with Tsezuma but the boy was closer.

Tsezuma and Azume both looked at Miaku and burst into laughter. "haha looks like you get the futon" Tsezuma said causing Miaku to frown. "Sometimes I wonder why I even entertain being around you two everyday." He spoke slinging his bag on the futon.

Tsezuma and Azume both did the same. "Easy, cause we're brothers, let's go ahead and check out the shopping district." Tsezuma spoke putting a hand onto Miaku's shoulder.

As the strangers stated, the shopping district was indeed close to the hotel. With only 10 minutes of walking they reached the heavily populated area.

"So where do you guys want to head to first?" Tsezuma asked, his hands on the back of his head. Azume and Miaku looked around at the multitude of stores and shops that lined up and down the street.

Miaku looked at the many shops uninterestedly, "The only thing that interests me is anything we can find ninja related. I'm ready to really start our training." He spoke, honestly each time he tinkered with his eyes, he couldn't help but get excited at the possibilities.

Azume continued to scan, "Yeah I'm with Miaku but just like our home, this place doesn't have ninja so I don't know our odds of finding somewhere for us, we also need to go for some more clothes, at least until we can find some ninja wear. We should also stop by somewhere to eat after all this is over."

The three continued their walk, passing by many furniture stores, food vendors, jewelry shops, and fashion clothing stores.

Tsezuma smiled at a teen girl who was looking their way as the girl immediately blushed and looked away. "Hmph one thing about this town I'm liking is it's cute girls" he smirked.

"Yeah they are something else aren't they" Azume grinned looking at a woman who walked into a clothing store.

Miaku only smirked shaking his head at the two. _"well nothing's ever boring with them"._ "Hey I think I see exactly what we were looking for guys" Tsezuma spoke up in slight excitement.

Azume raised his brow. It was a small shop called "Triple S: Suatori Shinobi Shop". "I don't know, let's check it out" Azume said as the three walked into the shop and couldn't help but be amazed.

Their were ninja weapons on the shelves, ranging from kunai to Katanas. Their was a clothing section that held different pairs of Shinobi wear and in the front near the shop owner were different scrolls and books.

"Wow…this place is amazing" Tsezuma whispered. The old man at the counter couldn't help but to chuckle. He remembered that time long ago when he possessed such childish curiosity. "Is this your first time in a shinobi store young man" he questioned.

The old man was bald with wrinkled skin and dark orange eyes. He wore a loose fitting brown short sleeved shirt and black slacks.

Tsezuma hearing the question, nodded looking at the many items in the store. "Hey how come you got all this in a civilian village?" He couldn't help but to ask, turning his head from the merchandise.

The old man chuckled, "Yes that's true, I'm a retired shinobi, I decided to move here into this nice quiet little town, this shop is how I've been making a few dollars to live off of, ninja who stop by this village and curious civilians often stop by my shop" the man spoke as he analyzed Tsezuma.

"I take it you and your friends are interested in the ways of the shinobi, Mr?" The old man left it hanging. "Oh, umm my name's Tsezuma, remember it, it's going to be big one day and yeah we're trying to teach ourselves" he said as the old man smiled. "That's very admirable, you three are sure to become very strong, it's no doubt teaching yourself will be very difficult." He spoke sagely.

Meanwhile with Miaku and Azume

"Okay, that's two packs of each." Miaku spoke to himself. He held two packs of kunai and shuriken. "Hmm?" he thought to himself glancing at the different blades up their.

"A Katana couldn't hurt anything" he muttered to himself. Azume also grabbed two packs of kunai and shuriken. He didn't really to much care for a sword or any other type of weapon the man had hanging up their. He preferred to focused on learning the basics before he tried anything else.

Miaku and Azume both walked up to the register. The old man observed both boys coming to his counter.

Miaku feeling eyes on him, looked up on instinct and made eye contact with the old man who gasped as his eyes widened exponentially.

"R-Ri-Rinnegan!" the man gasped out. Miaku immediately narrowed his eyes. _"Rinnegan?"_ Miaku pondered. "You know what these are!" he pointed his hand to his eyes. The old man didn't utter a word, only staring in complete frozen shock. _"Th-They were supposed to be a myth..b-but why are they black"_

Miaku quickly grew agitated and impatient, "HEY! Listen if you know anything about these eyes tell me!" Miaku snarled glaring at the man as he seemed to jump out of his shock.

"Ah…yes..You see, those eyes of yours look very much so like the fabled rinnegan. It's said that they are the eyes given by God himself for the possessor to either help destroy or save the world. It's said that the rinnegan is the most powerful eye technique of them all, even having power over life and death" the man started.

The three couldn't help but be shocked as they looked at Miaku's eyes. "Y-Your eyes however are black..the stories tell that the eyes were supposed to be lavender in color. It's like you have a black pair of rinnegan, it's no telling what your eyes are capable of" the old man finished, he couldn't draw his eyes away from Miaku's. They radiated power and mystery.

It was an pregnant silence for a moment before Azume spoke up. "..Let finish up guys, we have things to do". Miaku and Azume went to the clothes section to find some shinobi clothing, the whole time Miaku felt uncomfortable. The old man eyes never left him.

With Tsezuma

" _hmm..so Kunai and Shuriken or no Kunai and Shuriken?"_ he had been having this discussion with himself for a few minutes now. He was sure his bones could shape into kunai and Shuriken so there would be no need to buy them, but at the same time, he wasn't sure that he'd know how to do it fluently enough in battle yet.

After a few more minutes, he ultimately decided to get them. _"Best to be safe"_ he muttered to himself as he put the weapons on the counter along with Azume's and Miaku's to then join them in the clothing section.

"Find anything?" Tsezuma asked upon reaching the two boys. "Yeah I think so" Azume said holding up a outfit.

After picking out clothes, the three went back to the register as they were ready to pay for their items. Miaku still feeling the man's eyes on him, immediately grew fed up. "Got a staring problem" he glared at the man.

The man swallowed nervously, averting his gaze from the menacing eyes. "N-No, sorry about that, it's just that I'm positive I'd never see eyes like those ever again, I was just admiring them" the man stated apologetically.

"As my customer, my mannerisms have been off-putting, so may I offer you all free Kunai and Shuriken holsters?" the man asked. Tsezuma nodded, "Sure we'd take them".

Azume looked at the many books and scrolls in the glass container in front of the man and saw a book called the "Bingo Book". "What's that?" he asked pointing at it.

The old man looked to where he was pointing and raised a brow, "That's the bingo book, it's a book with all the shinobi with Bounties on their head, the book is mostly used by Hunter nin, anbu, or Rogue ninja used to capture or kill to collect bounties" he said, Azume nodded, "We want to buy that too" he spoke as the man grabbed the key to unlock the glass.

As he grabbed it, he wrung up all of their items. "It's 500 ryo" the man said as Tsezuma put the money on the counter. "Do you three have sealing scrolls for all of your items?" he asked to which they looked confused.

"..Sealing scrolls?" Azume asked as the man nodded. "Yes, it's a scroll where you can seal anything into it, the items that are sealed are held suspended in time until they are unsealed, so you could even store food." The man said grabbing a sealing scroll to give an example.

He grabbed one of the Kunai pack, "With a little chakra, you can seal the item-" he started as the Kunai seemed to puff into nonexistence. "Or you can unseal as well" he finished as the Kunai pack appeared in his hands. He looked up to see the three preteens with their awestruck expressions and couldn't help but to chuckle.

"How about I give you all three on the house so you can seal all of your items?" he asked kindly as they eagerly nodded.

"With this, we won't have to carry around our book bags all day" Azuma said joyously. After sealing all of their items they thanked the old man and left, as soon as they were out of sight the old man frowned.

" _Those three…it's something about them, plus that one with that black pair of rinnegan…I cant help but to feel strange about them...with eyes and a group like that, a lot of bloodshed is bound to be in their future."_


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden, only my OC's.

Month and a half Later

Naruto and Sasuke heavily glared at each other. Their was slightly perspiration on the foreheads of both boys showcasing that they've been at this for a while now. Naruto twirled the six kunai in his hands as Sasuke immediately clutched the six shuriken he held.

The air surrounding the two was thick with a dangerous intent. Tension flew from one boy's gaze to the other. They held a stand off, seeming to size the other up.

The wind suddenly blew through the stiff air in a cool breeze that caused the two genin muscles to tense.

As soon as the winds calmed, they wasted no other moment. Naruto swiftly launched the kunai at Sasuke. Seeing the kunai, he flipped through the air, hurdling the shuriken at each kunai, throwing each one off it's course. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he had to block a punch aimed for his head from Naruto.

He then had to block a elbow to the side of the head, parrying the blow. Naruto did a swift leg sweep towards Sasuke who grabbed on to his shoulder blade spinning behind him, throwing a punch at the unguarded back of Naruto's head.

Before he could land it, Naruto ducked turning around. Sasuke then threw another punch aimed for his throat. The punch however was sidestepped but Sasuke followed up with a kick to the chest that staggered the blond backwards a step.

Naruto created two clones as the three charged the Uchiha. Sasuke dodged the grapple from the first clone as he tripped it up causing it to disperse. The second clone, quickly drew a kunai as it slashed at the quick genin.

Sasuke sidestepped each slash from the clone before punching it in the head. This left him open for the real Naruto who rammed his knee into his face.

Caught off guard, blood spewed from Sasuke's busted lip which only served to anger him. Before Naruto could follow up with a punch, Sasuke using a burst of speed stepped into the punch, sidestepping just at the last moment "too slow!" he shouted.

He grabbed Naruto's arm swinging him around building up velocity before tossing him in the air.

"It's over" Sasuke thought whipping through his hand signs for a jutsu. The airborne Naruto couldn't block this! "Fire Style Fireball Jutsu!" he shouted.

A large Fireball immediately flew at a great speed towards Naruto who put up his own handsign. "Shadow Closed Jutsu!" a clone immediately appeared pulling Naruto out of the way of the fire as the Jutsu hit the clone.

Not wasting any time, Naruto created three more clones quickly grabbing them launching them at the Uchiha. Sasuke's eyes widened, quickly jumping back as the first clone compacted with the spot he just evacuated from.

"He's launching his own clones as if their missiles!" he thought as he back flipped away from the other clone. Before Naruto reached the ground, he launched the last clone.

Sasuke only smirked, instead of moving, he pulled out a kunai. As the clone grew closer, he slashed right across it's head as it popped into non-existence.

Seeing the cloud of smoke blocking Sasuke's view, Naruto immediately whipped through hand signs. "Wind Style Great Breakthrough!" he shouted.

A large invisible compression of air easily blew away the smoke colliding with the Uchiha sending the boy careening backwards. He kept soaring backward till his back hit a large tree

"Argh!" Sasuke grunted out in pain, before he could get up Naruto was charging him. "Damn it!" Sasuke rushed through hand signs, he wasn't done working on this Jutsu but it'd have to work. "Lightning Style Paralysis Ball!" Lightning quickly started circulating on Sasuke's right hand, "I got to make this quick, its hard to contain" he thrust the ball at the oncoming Naruto.

Naruto eyes widened, he was too close to dodge completely. "ugh!" Naruto grunted jumping to the side, narrowly missing the ball, lightning currents from the Jutsu still made contact with him.

"The attack missed for the most part but the shockwaves will slow me down" Naruto contemplated as he continued his dash towards the Uchiha, albeit slowed.

By the time Naruto reached Sasuke, the dark haired boy had got up clutching a kunai before rushing ahead.

Naruto seeing the kunai, immediately brandished his own as the two weapons met powerfully. *Clang* Sparks shot from both weapons as the two boys growled at each other.

Suddenly, Naruto smirked. Seeing the look, Sasuke grew confused and slightly agitated. "What's so fu-" Sasuke started before gasping in shock as Naruto's Kunai cleanly sliced through his.

"He must've used wind chakra!" Sasuke thought immediately jumping back from the boy. Naruto started to rapidly go through hand signs.

"Wind Style Air bullets" Naruto shot six powerful condensed wind bullets at the retreating Uchiha. Sasuke quickly weaved through the first couple of air bullets, but ultimately was at point blank range making it impossible to dodge them all.

"He won't dodge this!" Naruto thought, Sasuke manage to dodge another air bullet but was left defenseless of the one coming after it.

The bullet immediately hit the Uchiha in the stomach lifting him off of his feet. "Arghh!" Sasuke shouted out in pain, spit flying from his mouth. The last air bullet then connected to his chest, careening him backwards at a fast velocity.

Naruto rushed the down Uchiha as his body finally stopped rolling. "It's Over" Naruto spoke calmly as he looked down at the boy.

Sasuke body suddenly *poofed*, in his place was a log. Naruto senses immediately went up in alarm as he swiftly turned around having to block a punch aimed for his face.

Sasuke not letting up, through a punch with his right fist. Seeing the blond block it too enraged Sasuke. "Its not over!" he shouted, he immediately jumped with a spinning kick straight to the side of Naruto's head.

Naruto grunted as his head was swimming in pain, he quickly grabbed Sasuke's foot tossing the boy backwards.

Before he could hit the ground, Sasuke flipped in mid air to land on his feet.

They were now yards away from each other, both with scowls. "One of the air bullets no doubt hit him, he must've dodged that very last bullet." Naruto thought grunting in slight discomfort, he could still feel the after effects of that lightning attack Sasuke used.

"I have to finish this!" Naruto immediately gave a rush towards Sasuke who ran at him as well. "This loser will not beat me!"

Before either boy could throw another punch, Kakashi suddenly grabbed both their arms and shook his head. "This was meant to be a spar, why's it so cutthroat with you two?" the Jonin asked exasperated looking at the two disgruntled preteens.

"Sakura spars over!" Kakashi shouted to the girl dispelling his clone who was fighting her. "Y-Yes Sensei!" Sakura gasped out breathing hard from her mouth wiping sweat from her brow.

Kakashi couldn't help but be proud of the girl's progress. She was improving splendidly, her taijutsu which use to be basically nonexistent had finally reached an acceptable level.

She had even grew an interest in the genjutsu arts, working on her first Jutsu which happened to be a c-rank illusion.

Kakashi then glanced back at the two boys who were still glaring at each other. He couldn't help but to feel…mixed about them.

Although their shinobi skills were progressing nicely, their relationship was still strained. It actually seemed to evolve into a rivalry of some sorts. Competing in training, missions, and even trivial things like who could finish their food first.

He honestly didn't know what to think of it all truly, at least it didn't seem to be as hostile as those first couple of weeks.

"Go clean yourselves up, you have the rest of the day off" Kakashi said.

Naruto heeded his words without uttering a word as he headed for his temporary room in the house.

As he reached the room, he let loose a sigh. To say things so far were annoying would be an understatement.

Kakashi often forced him and Sasuke into situations together in and outside of training knowing the two would bicker. Even Naruto could admit that sometimes the Jonin was right to do so but it didn't make it any less troublesome.

One memory in particular was the grocery store incident.

Flashback

It's now been three weeks staying at the Uchiha's District. Naruto frowned, things were quite stiff between him and Sasuke.

Ever since that encounter at the door, the Uchiha had been glaring at him every now and then. With him refusing to be a pushover, he had to glare back which only made things worse.

As soon as they got situated in the house three weeks ago, Kakashi had begun teaching them chakra control. It took Naruto and Sasuke the entire first week to get down the basics of tree climbing as Sakura seemed to get it on the very first day. Perhaps because of her smaller chakra reserves but nonetheless it was impressive.

After the week was out, Kakashi took no break and swiftly started them on water walking. Water walking took them even longer than tree walking, taking them all the way into the third week.

As soon as they started to make progress, Kakashi made them have spars while maintaining their control. Which was agitating to say the least. Maintaining and altering your chakra output and sparring at the same time was very distracting. It was hard to not focus on one or the other.

..Today so happened to had been a spar between himself and Sasuke. A spar that immediately turned rather vicious and needed intervention from Kakashi.

Naruto didn't know what it was but it was just something about that kid that got under his skin. He was the only one that got him to act irrational and he hated that.

To get his mind off of the sour topic, Naruto glanced around the room he was currently inhabiting.

The bed was a king size with black Satin covers. The walls were a pale white and bare of any objects such as pictures or paintings. There was a thick oak dresser situated near the bed with a black lamp sitting on top of it.

"Uchiha Itachi.." Naruto pondered to himself. It was kind of strange for him to be sleeping in a man's room that murdered his entire clan besides his little brother.

"Naruto, Kakashi-sensei wants to see you" Sakura spoke, sticking her head through the cracked door. Naruto slightly nodded, sitting up from the bed.

Naruto followed Sakura towards the living room, seeing Kakashi sitting on the sofa with Sasuke standing in front of him.

Perhaps he wanted to give them a proper lashing for that spar, if so, Naruto couldn't say he blamed the man.

Kakashi noticing the blond walk in the room, gave him a eye-smile. "Naruto, just who I was waiting on" Kakashi said confusing the boy.

"Well now to get down to business..I have a little errand only you and Sasuke can do for me." Kakashi spoke in his aloof tone. "It's something that requires both of your expertise and I need not for you to fail" Kakashi continued.

Naruto and Sasuke both leaned into the Jonin in anticipation of their orders. "This must be serious" Sakura thought narrowing her eyes. She couldn't help but feel slightly peeved for not being able to join them. She understood she had a lot to catch up on but still, she wasn't totally useless!

"I need you two to go grocery shopping" Kakashi eye-smiled. Naruto and Sasuke immediately deadpanned, eye-twitching in disbelief and anger. Sakura sweat-dropped.

"W-What?" Sasuke asked in shock. Did he really just ordered them to go grocery shopping? And Together?

Naruto dug a finger in his ear, maybe they were clogged. His ears had to be messing with him. "Did I hear right? Did you just tell us to go grocery shopping?" Naruto asked refusing to believe that was the case.

Kakashi only nodded as Sasuke scoffed. "It don't take the both of us to do something as trivial as grocery shopping, I rather not spend more time with anyone if I don't have to. You already force us enough as is" he spoke hotly as Naruto nodded.

"As much shock as it is, I agree with Sasuke, I wouldn't even be staying here if you didn't order us too. Not to mention you chose the worse two to go grocery shopping together" Naruto folded his arms, he and Sasuke strongly disliked each other, being forced in a public setting together outside anything to do with the team would only spell disaster.

"Naruto's right Kakashi-sensei, I can go, or if you want, one of them can go with me" Sakura spoke up, trying to alleviate the already frustrating situation.

"No Sakura that won't be needed" Kakashi gave a glance at the girl before leveling a glare at the two younger males of the team. The two boys immediately stiffened, caught off guard by the normally laid-back Jonin.

"Let's get one thing straight. I'm not trying to make you all the best of friends, that's not my goal ultimately, even if that would be nice. My goal is to make sure that you live and make it pass genin. Naruto, Sasuke, it's no doubt you two are very capable for fresh out the academy genin, but even with your skills you won't go far. You guys work good together but your hearts are never truly in it. You're too self absorbed with yourselves and think that you only can get things done alone. You don't see it yet, but you're stunting your growth not only as ninja but as men." Kakashi scolded the two, before letting loose a sigh.

"Frankly as is, you won't make chuunin ever. If you can't work together on something as 'trivial' as grocery shopping, then when things get harder than the occasional spar against me, you two will be little more than sitting ducks. It's not fair for those you'll have to protect in the future, it's not fair for your teammate Sakura, and it's not fair to yourselves"

30 Minutes Later

After the tongue-lashing from Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke begrudgingly left for the grocery store without another act of defiance.

Naruto seemed to have a permanent frown on his face as he pushed the shopping cart alongside the equally brooding Sasuke.

"I promised myself to be a ninja for Yuki, I won't do it half-assed, I'd be damn if I stay a genin forever!" Naruto internally scowled at even the thought. He couldn't help but replay Kakashi's words in his head, each time his mood souring. He wouldn't dare tarnish Yuki's name that way.

The two filled the shopping cart with plenty of food. From beef, chicken, and noodles to different type of fresh vegetables, fruit, and dairy products. They even grabbed their favorites, along with Kakashi's and Sakura's.

They shopped in peace, neither breaking the somber mood Kakashi seemed to put them in. Although, Sasuke did seem to have another thing on his mind as well.

"These people have had their eyes on us since we came in here" He thought. Sasuke was used to a lot of attention, being the last Uchiha and all, but these looks were different.

When people looked at him, they gave him looks of awe and pity. It could get truly disgusting to him how they treated him. Showering him with praise and sometimes even gifts like he was some type of tragic noble or ticking time bomb. He hated those looks, it only ever reminded him that he was a black sheep. The last Uchiha whose older brother mercilessly butchered their clan.

Looking back at the civilians in the store, he didn't see those looks. The looks they gave them were ones of fear and hatred. If not those looks, then they were completely ignored like they weren't even their.

Call him what you want, but Sasuke wasn't said to be a genius for no reason. He knew these looks were primarily aimed at Naruto. Now that he truly thought about it, every time he go out with the blonde, he get those looks.

Naruto was headstrong and could be conceited at times, but he didn't do anything that warranted these types of looks. It had to be a reason, something that Sasuke didn't know.

Before he could continue on that train of thought, he had to help Naruto remove the groceries to the bagging area.

Flashback end

Ever since that day, Naruto and Sasuke seemed to tolerate each other to a certain extent, instead of shooting death glares, they tended to treat their relationship as more of a rivalry of some sort.

Naruto turned the shower head on, balancing out the hot and cold temperatures to make for a warm shower.

He undressed from his black collar shirt, followed behind by his camouflaged pants and ninja sandals, slowly stepping into the water so that his body could grow accustomed.

He let loose a sigh of relief as the waters washed off all the dirt and grime his body accumulated from today's morning.

It took him only about ten minutes to finish up. As he was putting on his clothes, their was an abrupt knock on his door.

Going to open it, he saw none other than Sakura who gave the boy a small smile. "Hey Naruto, our graduation class was meeting up today at this lake for a group picnic, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to come.

Before Naruto gave a "no" like he started to, he really evaluated his options. It was true, he had nothing in common with his old classmates, but they were now considered his allies and it was better to know them now instead of a future mission and having to compromise. Not proving Kakashi right was also a plus.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura walked through one of the many paths of Konoha's forest. Sakura had a bright smile on her face as she clutched the basket of homemade foods in her hands as she walked between her two male teammates.

When Naruto and Sasuke first saw each other, to say the least, they were surprised the other decided to go. It was truly out of both of their character.

Naruto moved a branch out of his way, as the clearing the picnic was held at, came into view.

He had to admit, the place was beautiful. There was a nice little lake with sparkling blue water situated near the end of the clearing, the area was shaded with a few trees and had low cut green grass with a small flower patch of lilies.

The clearing was filled with laughter and loud talking from all the other rookie genin teams that were already their.

"Hey there go team 7" Kiba yelled out from the water with Choji. Both boys were in their trunks, walking out of the water to greet the team.

Ino, who was sitting in a foldable chair currently tanning and chastising Shikamaru immediately perked up. That meant Sasuke was there!

She immediately whipped her head in the vicinity Kiba pointed in. "SASUKE-KUN" Ino yelled joyously jumping from her seat to greet the boy. Sasuke had to try hard for his eye not to twitch in annoyance. Since Sakura toned down her fangirl ways, he hadn't had to deal with much flirting.

Ino was wearing a two piece yellow swimsuit that really accentuated her curves. Her long blonde hair was situated in a pony tail that stopped at her mid-back and showed off her earrings. She struck a seductive pose, "How do I look Sasuke-kun?" she winked at the dark haired boy who only looked at her with a blank stare.

"Hn, I see you're still the same pig" Sakura smirked at Ino who immediately shot a glare at the girl. "Oh please, you're just jealous that the only part of your body that's developing is your forehead!"

Before the girls could continue their banter, Shikamaru groaned from his laidback position of looking at the clouds. "Come on Ino, stop being so troublesome to team 7, they just got here". "*munch* Yeah Ino, Shikamaru's right" Choji agreed with his best friend, eating from his bag of chips he left sitting by the shadow user.

"Shut it, you two!" Ino shouted back at the lazy Nara and greedy Akimichi. They really got in her way sometimes! Naruto watched the interactions and couldn't help but to think maybe it was a bad idea to come.

"A-Ano, Hi Naruto-kun" a soft voice whispered out. Naruto looked up and immediately into the unsuspecting widening eyes of Hinata Hyuuga.

"Hey" Naruto nodded back a greeting, a cherry colored blush tinted Hinata's cheeks as she twiddled her fingers together in shyness. "C-Come on Hinata,Y-You can do this!" she thought with determination.

"H-How have y-you been?" She asked him, only a few stammers getting through. He was her idol, her crush, she couldn't help but feel the nervous jitters that flittered throughout her tummy.

Naruto raised a brow at the strange girl, she was always red faced and stuttering every time he saw her. "I've been alright I guess. You?" he asked to be polite.

Before she could answer, Kiba put a wet hand on the girls shoulder causing her to shriek. "We've done a lot of training lately, hope you guys haven't been slacking or we'd blow you out the water" Kiba smirked, Naruto had to withheld a snort at the cocky Inuzuka.

"As if dog breath" Sakura teased the prideful genin of team 8. "The only training you probably did was learn how to use an indoor bathroom". Ino burst into laughter as Kiba looked indignant.

I'll have you know me and Akamaru have been potty trained for a while now!" He shouted in outrage pointing at the pink haired girl, Akamaru yipped in agreement with his master.

Shikamaru slapped his head, "Kiba, What do you mean for a while now? Akamaru's still a puppy, you shouldn't of had to potty train with him"

Kiba's face immediately erupted into a blush of embarrassment. As he opened his mouth to speak, Shino's chilly voice cut him off.

".Kiba you should leave the conversation alone. Why, you may ask? Because you'll further embarrass yourself with your outbursts." He stated flicking his glasses up to further shield them from the shiny ray's of sunlight.

A few moments later, the group went back to doing what they were doing before team 7 came. Naruto decided to sit under the shade of a tree away from everybody but not out of sight. Looking at Sasuke, he saw he decided to do the same with a opposite tree although he was soon hounded by Ino.

The boy had a large tick on his head in aggravation that Naruto couldn't help but to smirk at. Something about seeing Sasuke annoyed just amused him.

Sasuke ignored every word coming out of Ino's mouth as he tried his best to tone her out. He wasn't interested but she never caught the hint. Feeling the eyes on him, Sasuke whipped his head towards Naruto giving the blonde a particularly nasty glare.

Naruto closed his eyes as he stared ahead, smirk deepening on his face. He wasn't much of a extrovert, but seeing Sasuke like this wasn't too much bad either.

With Tsezuma Azume and Miaku

"We're totally broke" Tsezuma groaned out. After the town they left two nights ago, they had officially exhausted the rest of their money.

Miaku folded his arms, "True, but there's not much we can do about it right now." he said as Tsezuma's shoulders further slumped as they trek through the foliage of the canopy.

"Maybe we can find some business in this next town" Azume spoke up from beside the two, twirling a kunai around his finger to pass the time. "Maybe a couple of odd jobs" he suggested.

Tsezuma only huffed, "I rather not do chores" he sighed with Miaku nodding in agreement. "We're not regular civilians now, there has to be something else we can do". Tsezuma said, putting his hand to his chin in thought.

Over the month and a half, the trio had spent most of their time training and learning. They had read every book that they owned that was shinobi related or chakra related, amassing quite a well understanding of it all. They even read the entire bingo book.

After reading the books, they applied what they learned and focused on training which comprised of kunai and shuriken target practice, chakra control, and taijutsu.

They even had their solo training where Tsezuma and Miaku tended to focuse more on their kekkai genkais while Azume focused on chakra related exercises and strength/speed training.

Everything was going pretty smooth so far for them, the hardest part was the first week of training where they had to get used to using chakra, but ever since then they were smooth sailing.

"Well I don't know what to tell you guys then. We've only been training for a month and a half now, I don't know who'd hire us for any type of mercenary work with our current skillset." Azume frowned, pointing out. It didn't matter how good they were doing, at the end of the day they weren't really ready for something serious.

"I know that, I'm not a idiot. I'm just saying eventually we'd have to start somewhere. There's only so much we can do without experience." Tsezuma said, resting his hands on the back of his head.

Miaku had a contemplative look on his face, "Hey Azume, you still have that Bingo book right?" he asked as the boy nodded.

Another pensive look stretched across his face before he decided to speak.

"..Well how about going after some of the missing ninja in there? The bounties will cover our financial problems and we'd get experience, killing two birds with one stone." Miaku finished. It was a win/win.

Tsezuma raised his brow, "I know I suggested doing ninja related things for money, but going after hard criminals off bat just sounds like a death wish and I don't plan on dying anytime soon" he joked at the end.

He was serious though, it was too early for them to blatantly rush to death. When he was speaking about doing ninja related jobs, he was thinking more on the lines of espionage or low risk bodyguard missions.

"Yeah, I'm not trying to die either. We should let our skills grow first before we go after anybody." Azume spoke resolutely.

Miaku shook his head at their misunderstanding, "No, we won't go after the S-ranks or A-rank criminals, I'm speaking specifically on the D-Ranks and maybe a few C's. We may not be the toughest right now, but we shouldn't get defeated so easily. Let alone by one genin level ninja" he started.

Tsezuma had a thoughtful look on his face. "You make a valid point, but I don't know. Those guys we'd go after were still trained in a ninja village. Everything we know was taught by ourselves." Tsezuma said. They would be at a disadvantage even if they were fighting together.

Azume shook his head, "We're just not ready yet". He firmly believed that they should take things slow, atleast for the time being until they could grow their skills more.

Miaku's suggestion was quickly becoming thwarted as they conversed about it. A frown etched across his face showing his growing frustration. They weren't even seeing his point!

"Well we need money now, and no matter how far our skills go we'd always be at a disadvantage because of our lack of experience. The thing about going after missing nin in the bingo book is that we'd always have intel on the enemy, they won't know about us" Miaku started, taking a pause to smirk.

"Besides, wasn't our entire point in being a ninja was so that we could protect people. We'd be going after the ninja just like the ones that attacked our home. We can help change the fate of children like us" He finished.

"Ha well look who decided to give a speech today" Tsezuma smiled. "But yeah though, you're right. I guess I'm down for it" he spoke giving a fist bump to Miaku.

The two then looked towards Azume who still held a frown on his face. "What do you say?" Miaku asked, waiting for a response.

"When they get like this it's no changing their minds" Azume mentally groaned out. They could be very stubborn when they wanted to be. Besides, someone had to look out for them.

Azume smacked his teeth in resignation. "Fine. But you two better hope I at least don't die a virgin fighting anybody or I'll haunt you in the after life" he playfully glared at them, causing the two to burst into laughter. Azume soon joined the two.

They kept on their scroll as their laughter died down. They kept a nice pace as Miaku suddenly snapped his eyes and squinted to a distance in front of them. His black patterned eyes glowed with chakra as his sight gained great clarity.

"There's a group of people running our way. It seems to be about seven of them." He spoke as Tsezuma grew confused.

"What? I didn't even sense them?" Tsezuma spoke astonished. How was this possible, no one should've been able to completely mask their chakra! Well unless..

Azume immediately brandished a kunai and tensed. If their were seven enemies than it was no use running from them.

"Wait a minute" Tsezuma face grew confused.

The group of people suddenly came into view for Tsezuma and Azume as Miaku shut off the chakra to his eyes.

Tsezuma folded his arms, "Who are you guys?" He asked looking over the group of men. They were civilians.

The reason he didn't notice them was because there chakra reserves weren't large. They barely had more than the wild animals that occupied the forest.

Azume glared at the men as they smirked between each other. They all had rough brazen looking appearances and seemed to vary in size. If he was being honest though, none of them looked to be special. Nonetheless his guard wouldn't be let down.

"You don't need to know who we are kiddies. One of our scouts saw you in the area so I decided to come by with a few of my men to greet you." The man with the backwards yellow bandanna on his head said as a few of the other men around him laughed as if what he said held humor. He was the apparent ring-leader.

Miaku stepped forward, "Well get lost then" he glared. The looks on the men face grew cruel as they stalked forward.

"Yeah we will..once you give us everything that you own" he spoke smirking as his men brandished their small pocket knives and swords.

Tsezuma stares at the guys in a unbelieving fashion. "You guys are bandits? Tsk how cliché, ambush who you think would be "weak" people and threaten them to give away all their belongings. You guys have no flare or originality at all". He shook his head in disappointment.

The bandits all looked at Tsezuma with blank stares. "Whatever brat, just cough everything up..or I can't guarantee you'd make it to your destination safely" the leader glared irritatedly. How dare he mock him and his crew, like they were the ones in a helpless position!

Before Tsezuma could say anything more, Miaku spoke up. "You know, guys like you are some of the worst types. Preying on the innocent, for that you won't be forgave."

The bandana wearing bandit scoffed, "lets teach these kids a lesson!" he shouted to his gang as they all gave a shout and rushed forward.

The first two bandits ran on different sides heading for Tsezuma. "This is for disrespecting the boss!" one of them yelled as they attempted to slash their swords at Tsezuma's midsection, intending to slice him in half.

Bone quickly pierced through Tsezuma's body from his hip as a large thick white bone on each side blocked both of the weapons.

The two bandits eyes widened at the odd ability. "W-What the-?" one of them uttered in disbelief. Tsezuma smirked, "you guys picked the wrong ones to pick on today".

Azume shook his head looking at the display Tsezuma was putting on. "Showoff". The forest was quickly filled with sounds of screaming bandits.


End file.
